The Afghan authorities themselves are dragging out the issue of exchanging prisoners of war with the Taliban, after which inter-Afghan negotiations should begin and a ceasefire is announced, the sooner both sides complete this process, the faster the civil war in the country will end, Russian President’s Special Representative for Afghanistan told the reporters.
Earlier, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s National Security Council, Javid Faisal, said the past week was “the deadliest in 19 years”, Taliban radical militants launched more than 400 attacks in Afghanistan in the past week and killed nearly 300 members of the national security forces.
“The Afghan authorities themselves must share responsibility for this – they drag out the exchange of prisoners of war, because after the exchange, an inter-Afghan process will be launched and a ceasefire will be announced. The sooner they release the Taliban prisoners, and the Taliban – those whom they have committed to release, the sooner the civil war will end”, – Kabulov said.
He noted that the issue of conducting inter-Afghan negotiations has so far “hung in the air”, since the condition on the exchange of prisoners has not been met.
It was previously reported that planned inter-Afghan negotiations could take place in Doha. However, the date has not yet been determined.
At the end of February, at a ceremony in Qatar, the US and the Taliban radical group signed the first peace agreement in more than 18 years of war, which provides for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan in 14 months and the start of an inter-Afghan dialogue in March after the prisoner exchange deal.